Lack of rational thought nearly scratched lottery

Updated 1:50 am, Thursday, April 25, 2013

It happens sometimes: Humans give their lizard brains full rein.

It's true, according to the American Museum of Natural History. Humans and lizards share brain parts inherited from fish. These parts — cerebellum, basal ganglia — process urges such as feeding and defense.

Humans, of course, benefit from the cortex, which evolved later and helps us “control our emotions” and “make complex decisions.”

I'm referring to a vote Tuesday that would've abolished the Texas Lottery Commission, a vote taken moments before House leaders hastily called a “lunch break,” during which few ate lunch (it was well past 2 p.m.), but many ate crow.

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The House had voted 65-81 against a sunset bill to continue the agency that administers the state lottery, which funds $2.2 billion for schools over the biennium. (A second vote, whipped by House leaders, reversed the action. A third on Wednesday continued the agency's operations.)

The initial destroyers were mostly Republicans, although four Democrats, including Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, joined the resistance.

“I voted to do away with it, but I didn't think I'd be part of a majority,” said Villarreal, who believes the agency is fiscally flawed.

State Rep. Justin Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, was in the initial minority that sought to keep the lottery system. He did so in a session in which lawmakers already are fighting to restore $5.4 billion in cuts to public education.

“We're at a point where we're still trying to fill that gaping hole from last session,” Rodriguez said. “And my biggest concern was if we don't vote yes on this, then we dig an even deeper hole for ourselves when it comes to funding public schools.”

That's the cortex working.

So why did so many Republicans go reptilian?

Some said it was out of concern for the poor. State Rep. Scott Sanford, R-McKinney, called the lottery a “predatory tax” on “poor people.”

To that, Rodriguez said, “At the same time, (Republicans) don't want to have a conversation about Medicaid expansion and helping those poor people,” which is a good point.

Others said they're concerned about the moral implications of gambling.

“This is about members being uneasy with how we raise this $2.2 billion through the lottery,” the bill's author, state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, told the Texas Tribune. “I think it's a valid debate, but frankly one that we shouldn't be having on the sunset bill and one that we should be having, rather, on the repeal bill.

“Because the irony is that many of these members voted for a budget that contained the $2.2 billion in it from the lottery sales, but then turn around and vote against the lottery.”

I asked Rodriguez about this inconsistency.

“I talked to some folks in leadership,” he told me. “Some folks are saying behind the scenes that Republicans are starting to push back a little bit about the amount of money going into public schools. We've been fighting to get more money both through the appropriations process and the rainy day fund.

“So this was kind of a way for them to say, 'It's enough,' basically.”

But wouldn't this blow, in eradicating a stable source of funding for education, only exacerbate the struggle to restore the cuts from other sources?

“When you look at it from a rational perspective, you're right,” Rodriguez said.

Rational thinking: a luxury for humans, not reptiles. I mentioned my lizard-brain conjecture to Rodriguez.

“I think that's particularly true here in the Texas House,” he said. “We have 150 members, and frankly, this is my first session, but things move at a pretty frenetic pace. And there are times when, if you're not paying attention, and there's a vote called, the tendency is, human nature is to go along with the crowd.”

In the struggle between the cerebellum and the cortex, that's a charitable way of putting it.